In a novel named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Minneapolis Star Tribune, Edna O'Brien depicts the intense relationship between a mother and daughter who long for closeness yet remain eternally at odds. From her hospital bed in Dublin, Dilly Macready awaits a visit from her long-estranged daughter Eleanora, the prodigal child who fled for London after her sensuous first novel caused a scandal. Eleanora's peripatetic life since then has brought international fame but personal turmoil, and Dilly has long beseeched her to return home, sending letters full of love, guilt, and recrimination that are both hilarious and heartbreaking. "We have now a shelf full of novels and story collections that constitute one of the scant handful of careers in English-speaking letters that unquestionably deserves to be called great," noted the Los Angeles Times. "O'Brien's artistry is striking in a story of a mother and daughter's love and estrangement."